Social Media Monitoring

Russian Information Operation on Facebook Encouraging Political Polarization in Georgia and Inauthentic Accounts Involved in It

1 May, 2020

On April 30, 2020 Facebook removed from its platform Kremlin’s propagandistic information agency News-Front’s pages in Georgian and other languages that they used in various countries. As part of its social media monitoring, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) was studying News-Front Georgia and Facebook accounts connected to it since November, 2019.

As a result of its analysis of open sources on Facebook, ISFED has concluded that News-Front Georgia (hereinafter, News-Front)operated on Facebook in gross violation of the platform’s regulations. In particular, Facebook page of News-Front Georgia and its administrator, together with inauthentic accounts, were disseminating targeted information in a selective manner, directed toward instigating antagonism and aggression among Georgian Facebook users, dividing the society and creating political polarization. News-Front and inauthentic accounts that acted in coordination with News Front were employing a range of tactics to spread anti-Western, pro-Russian messages and create inauthentic interaction in order to mislead Facebook audiences.

News-Front was active on Facebook for around 6 months. To disseminate its content News-Front used an organized network, mostly in the form of likely inauthentic, suspicious accounts. In addition to the official Facebook page of the publication and the personal account of its administrator, Konstantine Chikviladze, the network was comprised of 12 inauthentic accounts that carried out active information operations in Facebook groups in a targeted and organized manner, using inauthentic and coordinated behavior.

News-Front and inauthentic accounts that operated in favor of the agency intentionally and selectively shared News-Front’s posts in thematic groups and simulated comments, which, in addition to apparent aim of intentional polarization of the Georgian political environment was possibly also related to the upcoming 2020 parliamentary elections. News-Front and its associated inauthentic accounts were targeting openly pro-Russian groups as well as groups that support the Georgian Dream and its leaders, and the groups supporting the United National Movement. ISFED found that News-Front content was being spread in 31 open Facebook groups with total of 521,240 members.

News-Front is a Kremlist information agent that operates in Georgia and was actively using Facebook to wage pro-Russian and anti-Western campaigns.

Russia reinforced its openly aggressive pro-Russian and anti-Western information front in Georgia in October 2019, exactly one year before the parliamentary elections, by launching an online publication News-Front Georgia (news-front.ge). According to research conducted by the Media Development Fund (MDF), the publication is managed by Shota Apkhaidze, a pro-Russian individual residing in Moscow, who is affiliated with a radical group Georgian March. MDF also highlights that News-Front Georgia has an openly organized network on Facebook.

News-Front Georgia is part of the network of a Kremlist news agency, News-front. Its official website lists Simferopol, Crimea in the contact information and indicates it as a territory of the Russian Federation. The agency incorporates publications in English, Bulgarian, German, Spanish, Serbian, Hungarian and Georgian languages.

News-Front was founded under the June 26, 2015 Order of the Communications Regulation Agency of the Russian Federation, Roskomnadzor.

During the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, News-Front was intentionally spreading disinformation and covertly undermining trust towards preventive measures taken by the state against the virus, including the state of emergency. With its disinformation articles News-Front attacked Lugar Research Laboratory and its head Paata Imnadze as well.

Coordinated Inauthentic Accounts Disseminating News-Front

ISFED discovered 12 inauthentic accounts, through which News-Front content was published in different Facebook groups in an organized and selective manner, in addition to being published on the official Facebook page of News-Front Georgia. The inauthentic accounts were posing as individuals with different demographic characteristics, including age and sex, which made their false interaction seem natural as if they represented a broad segment of society. In addition, the high degree of their demographic diversification caused invisibility of their coordination and their organized activity remained unnoticed by Facebook users.

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In a number of instances, these accounts engaged in an organized interaction on the official Facebook page of News-Front and promoted expression of pro-Russian, anti-American sentiments, which created a false perception that these sentiments were shared by many Facebook users.

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One of the inauthentic accounts under the name of Nadia Kakabadze, on one hand, sharing News-Front content in various groups and, on the other hand, leaving provoking comments on posts shared by other inauthentic accounts:

Nadia Kakabadze: what do you mean we should think about Georgia?! The U.S. isn’t letting you put these garbages on trial and soon they will bring in Misha and this will be the end of it.

Nadia Kakabadze: Therefore, the State should act adequately in this regard, a lot needs to be done and someone should explain to people what is going on in reality

Nadia Kakabadze: confiscate immediately

Nadia Kakabadze: what does a social network have to do worth it? They ate up and sold the country, while this man hasn’t committed any crime.

Simulation of interaction on a News-Front’s article by inauthentic accounts on News-Front’s page and in public groups:

News-Front Georgia shared a link

How did Misha start his “carreer” and what are his supporters doing today?! By being an atheist, by fighting against the church, by creating false ideals, false challenges and false idols! All of this is justified by current government – and is selling these hags are the main opposition force! Which one is worse? Both are more or less the same because one is being openly hostile, while the other is covering it up, telling you to “endure and accept it” – “subjects you to violence...” – wrote Konstantine Chikviladze... follow the link to see the full article.

“We are reaping what we sow” – Konstantine Chikviladze on the authorities and the opposition

Comments:

Tamo Gabadze: Mr. Kote is right, as usual

Tamar Kopadze: he is correct, isn’t he?

Eka-Teo Kadaria: thank you for these words, Mr. Konstantine: “Both are more or less the same because one is being openly hostile, while the other is covering it up, telling you to “endure and accept it” – “subjects you to violence...”

Soso Futkaradze: I agree with Kote, they’re both the same, the only difference is that these are inept.

Liberal Zazas – rap performed by Zaza Nozadze brilliantly expresses its social meaning – criticize mischiefs that have gained a foothold in the society and look at them with irony.

Georgian Media - a goblins’ lair, i.e. illiterate respondents and correspondents saturated with the spirit of provincialism, the style of speaking, acting and thinking introduced by mediocre foreign instructors and curators, imperatives, clichés, stereotypes ... A young free man is fighting against all of this. Follow the link to see the video.

Comments:

Nadia Kakabadze: an honorable and talented young man, follow his example

Tika Tyeshelashvili: I liked it a lot, because it’s the truth

Lamara Popkhadze: behavior of Natsliberalists, described accurately

News-Front Georgia shared a link

Liberal Zazas – rap performed by Zaza Nozadze brilliantly expresses its social meaning – criticize mischiefs that have gained a foothold in the society and look at them with irony.

Georgian Media - a goblins’ lair, i.e. illiterate respondents and correspondents saturated with the spirit of provincialism, the style of speaking, acting and thinking introduced by mediocre foreign instructors and curators, imperatives, clichés, stereotypes ... A young free man is fighting against all of this. Follow the link to see the video.

Comments:

Konstantin Chikviladze: I like it

Nadia Kakabadze: an honorable and talented young man, follow his example

Tika Tyeshelashvili: complete truth

Lamara Popkhadze: behavior of Natsliberalists, described accurately

Some inauthentic accounts stole other people’s identities. Some had low quality profile pictures and it was impossible to verify them using open sources, while others had names and last names that could not be found on the unified voters’ list and/or names had been changed/different from their Facebook URL link. Their personal profiles did not show behaviors that are characteristic to common users – for instance, there were no interactions of acquaintances on profile pictures. While the identified inauthentic accounts, did not show characteristics of common users they were heavily intertwined with Facebook activity of News-Front’s administrator, Konstantine Chikviladze.

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Account Nadia Kakabadze was using photos published by a photographer Aleksander Tolchinky;

Account Vika Telia was using photos of a Moldavian model;

Account Irakli Samushia was using photos of an Albanian musician, Tedi Nuholli

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On April 30, Facebook removed all of these 12 inauthentic accounts as well as the personal profile of Konstantine Chikviladze.

In addition to sharing News-Front materials in an organized manner, the network of inauthentic accounts initiated or engaged in discussions on key developments under the shared materials, left comments, artificially increased discussions about unpopular opinions, aggressively attacked individuals with opposing views. The main messages produced by these inauthentic accounts were anti-American, anti-democratic and pro-Russian. Also, their positions expressed in comments were clearly anti-opposition.

News-Front Georgia (shared by Avtandil Bejashvili): will the new U.S. ambassador encourage Georgia to act against Russia?

Comment by Irakli Samushia: Because of nearly zero interest of the Trump administration in Georgia and the resulting lack of Ambassador, you can tell that our country hasn’t received instructions.

Screens of Irakli Samushia sharing various News-Front content.

News-Front Georgia (Shared by Konstantin Chikviladze): Constant propagation on “occupation” is not working anymore, just like Communist propaganda couldn’t achieve the same results in the second half of the 80s. Against this background, we should look at our history more objectively and evaluate how we lived, what was better and what was worse in the past.

A Russian film provided below does not claim to be absolutely objective and accurate but it hasn’t been created with bad intentions toward Georgia and it contains a very large dose of the truth. It’s from series of films and it is called “The USSR Empire backwards. Georgia” (Russia, 2017).

“What you saw can no longer be seen!” What Georgia lost with [collapse] of the Soviet Union.

Comment by Irakli Samushia: I have seen the video and a lot of things in it are true. Unfortunate reality.

Nadia Kakabadze (commenting on a News-Front link shared by Badri Dolidze to the group Kakha Kaladze Tbilisi Mayor): what do you mean we should think about Georgia?! The U.S. isn’t letting you put these garbages on trial and soon they will bring in Misha and this will be the end of it.

Tamar Kopadze (commenting on a News-Front link shared to the group Kakha Kaladze Tbilisi Mayor): We should get rid of these underbred Americans soon or we will be the first ones to be sacrificed to the confrontation between the U.S. and Russia

As an example, during illegal imprisonment of doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili in Tskhinvali isolator, the identified inauthentic accounts were provoking public discussions and invading comments, in a robust attempt to portray Gaprindashvili as a provocateur and spread the opinion according to which there was nothing heroic in his actions.[1] Accounts associated with News-Front were disseminating nearly identical texts in different groups, blaming Gaprindashvili’s imprisonment on the United National Movement.

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Identical comments of the same inauthentic account on the article disseminated by the News-Front in four different groups, suggesting that the comments are artificial:

Text of the News-Front Georgia post in different groups: The National Movement claimed that it could return the doctor along with Georgia’s European and American Friends. “De-facto” imprisonment: Tskhinvali Court is firm; it sentenced Doctor Vazha to 1 year and 9 months of imprisonment.

Dissemination of the article discrediting Vazha Gaprindashvili in different thematic groups by inauthentic accounts of News-Front, within eight-minute interval

Identical Comment by Tamar Kopadze in all four groups: without excessive and inappropriate actions of the National Movement, without portraying this in political light and asking for assistance worldwide, instead of simply talking to the Ossetian side...

Text of the News-Front Georgia post shared by inauthentic accounts in 6 different groups:

According to Vazha Gaprindashvili, he had hidden chocolates and sweets in prison; he could talk on a cellphone. This means that he violated the prison regime. Apparently, Ossetian prisoners respected Mr. Vazha and prisoners with certain status were “spoiling” him this way. However, Mr. Vazha should take into account that his statements may have some negative consequences for those people.

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These inauthentic accounts had identical behavior on Facebook, as manifested in public posts that they published, in their comments, similar language used and pages liked, which were also identical. This possibly indicates that they were administered by a single source.

Observation on activity of these inauthentic accounts on Facebook indicated often their actual goal was to suppress discussions by real people, to disseminate similar, desired opinion at a large-scale by several accounts, in order to lead people with different opinion, who are involved in discussions, to experience social unacceptability.

Use of Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior in Facebook Groups

ISFED investigation has found that News-Front and its affiliated inauthentic accounts published materials tailored to pro-Russian interests in 31 Facebook groups with different intensity. These 31 groups have a total of 521,240 members.

Groups targeted by the News-Front can be divided into the following categories based on their audience:

openly pro-Russian

supporters of the Georgian Dream/party leaders

supporters of the United National Movement/oppositional

anti-oppositional in terms of content

emigrants residing in Europe and in the United States

religious

Inauthentic accounts took turns to share News-Front materials in a selective manner, almost on a daily basis and sometimes several times a day into the Facebook groups with thousands of members. The shared materials were usually presented in the form of a link to the News-Front website, accompanied by a main message of the article.

Notably, while these Facebook groups have thousands of members, there were almost no instances of authentic users sharing News-Front materials in these groups. Instead, News-Front materials were disseminated in these targeted Facebook groups by the official page of News-Front, as well as by the network of inauthentic accounts closely linked to News-Front.

Having observed posts published by News-Front’s organized network in Facebook groups, ISFED found three distinct ways News-Front tried to manipulate audiences with selective information by News-Front. They targeted Facebook groups of both government supporters and opposition supporters with tailored provocative messages which may have served the purpose of dividing the society into two camps and triggering confrontation. In addition, News-Front targeted broad range of Facebook groups with pro-Russian and anti-Western content.

News-Front was disseminating materials that contained openly anti-Western and anti-opposition narratives in Facebook groups of the Georgian Dream supporters, as well as in groups that openly support pro-Russian policy, with the aim of deepening hate and antagonism toward the opposition, their supporters, civil society and Western values. In addition, Western politicians and the entire West including NATO were portrayed as Georgia’s enemies and it was claimed that they are pressing the rule of Mikheil Saakashvili and the UNM upon Georgia. In addition, some articles aim to discredit recent united format of the opposition.

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News-Front Georgia post in the Facebook group Antiliberal Space: Today we begin by compiling a list of “Sorosians” [a derogatory term for NGO representatives], who were planted by the Soros Fund in the Georgian political spectrum and essentially turned Georgia into the polygon of Soros’s experiment. The fact that a fund established by representatives of a foreign country is training staff for holding key positions of the country poses a significant threat for this country, i.e. for Georgia. This fact is inappropriate for a sovereign state, while Georgia is claiming to be one. Soros Fund managed to have its former employees hold key positions in the government and by doing so, it undermined sovereign development of the country.

Title of the News-Front article: Soros Fund – blacksmith of Georgian political officials

Konstantin Chikviladze shared a link to News-Front Georgia article in the Facebook group Antiliberal Space: In an interview with The Economist, published on Thursday, French President Emanuel Macron said that members of the North Atlantic Alliance should no longer hope that American will protect them. What is happening today is the death of NATO’s brain. In the meantime, we have Archil Talakvadze in Georgia, who made yet another speech in agreement with the U.S. embassy, during the 13th GDSC conference. Follow the link to see what Macron and Talakvadze said.

News-Front Georgia: Read well what the French President is saying on NATO prospects, while they’re “on another planet” in Batumi.

News-Front Georgia’s post in the Facebook group Horizon: In the 16th century, Georgia was no longer unified and it was subjected to influence of the Ottoman Empire and Persia. These two monsters easily decided the fate of once-unified Georgia and based on the Peace of Amasya in 1555, Georgia was divided between Turkey and Iran. Once wealthy Kingdom of Kakhetia was now ruled by the Safavids. Georgians turned to Russia for help

Title of the News-Front article: Russian Streltsy Unit in Georgia.

News-Front Georgia post in the Facebook group Antiliberal Space: America isn’t Russia, where “Gruzins” can get away with many things... American prison was an example for Bachana Akhalaia – you should know this.

Georgian world champion in American prison

Title of the News-Front article: American “justice” for a talented Georgian world champion

2. The number of posts disseminated in the largest group of the UNM supporters, with over 44,000 users, called “Let’s unite against the enemy, to return Misha’s progress”, bringing together 44,000 users, was fewer than those disseminated in groups of the Georgian Dream supporters. The form and content of materials disseminated by the network of inauthentic accounts in groups that support the UNM was not directed against UNM political leaders; instead, aggression was directed against state institutions, the ruling party, or against public officials and politicians that are not clear leaders or supporters of the UNM.

to illustrate the point, ISFED offers an example of inciting behavior from one inauthentic account, which praises the CEC in a comment on one of the false media pages and calls for confiscation of the CEC Chair’s property when sharing News-Front content in a thematic oppositional political group.

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Account Nadia Kakabadze leaves comments in support of the CEC on false media pages and expresses aggression toward the CEC Chair in groups that support the UNM.

Post by MMP: According to the CEC, printing of election ballots began today.

According to the CEC spokesperson, Ana Mikeladze, ballots will be printed for the October 28 presidential elections and Sakrebulo by-elections in 6 electoral precincts in Terjola and Samtredia.

The process of ballot printing will last several days and it will be monitored by the CEC members, 12 observers of 2 international and 5 local observer organizations...

Comment by Nadia Kakabadze: bless you, CEC.

Post by Moambe: For the 2018 presidential elections, the CEC continues to inform voters and election stakeholders about ongoing electoral processes.

According to the CEC, from September 28, 3 637 electoral precinct commissions began distributing voters’ information cards. Through these cards, each voter will be able to receive information about elections, as well as about his/her electoral precinct...

Comment by Nadia Kakabadze: this is commendable. I am happy that the CEC is moving forward, progress is clear.

Nadia Kakabadze shared News-Front Georgia’s post in the group Let’s unite against the enemy, to return Misha’s progress!:

GEL 109 thousand is the CEC chair’s one-year salary

Comment by Nadia Kakabadze: confiscate, quickly

Example of posts selectively disseminated in groups that support the two opposing parties:

News-Front Georgia > Bidzina Ivanishvili’s friends on Facebook: Several months prior to the election, the Georgian society knows what it doesn’t want. It is the “opposition” united in Natelashvili’s caravanserai, which isn’t going to receive any votes.

News-Front Georgia > Kakha Kaladze Tbilisi Mayor: You used to knit on a permanent basis, so why would anyone bother you? They revived an old case against Ugulava, why didn’t they do it before?

News-Front Georgia > Bidzina Ivanishvili’s friends on Facebook: There is an old and slightly obscene anecdote: Maro who got back from a visit to a doctor says to her husband: “Mikho, we thought it was an asthma but it turned out to be an orgasm.” The reason why I recalled this anecdote is that...

3. In all target groups, News-Front and its inauthentic accounts disseminated articles that manipulated sensitive national issues, contained conspiratorial theories and seeded irrational fears, which possibly aimed to disorganize the society and stir up aggression. In these articles, the West was portrayed as Georgia’s destroyer while Russia was portrayed as a savior. The United States was named as a major threat to Georgia and painted as the enemy.

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Tika Tyeshelashvili shared a post of News-Front Georgia:

Georgia and Tajikistan have equal refusal rates for U.S. visa applications. 64% of Georgian visa applicants were refused last year by the United States Consulate. This is how Georgia’s older friend, strategic partner and the beacon of democracy expresses its love and support toward Georgia. The chart below includes only post-Soviet countries, while compared to all countries of the world, we are among outsiders. Absolute majority of third world countries, including Zambia (40.64%), Uganda (51.65%), Tonga (45.85%), Sudan (57.44%), Pakistan (48.25%) have lower refusal rates than Georgia for U.S. visa applications. Below see statistics based on American sources:

Title of the News-Front article: The U.S. is “helping” us but it doesn’t need Georgians

Nadia Kakabadze shared a post of News-Front Georgia:

Georgia’s servile subordination to the U.S. not only causes tension in the relationship with Russia but also damages the prospects of favorable commercial and economic ties with Iran. This is recognized indirectly and covertly by economist Vakhtang Charaia in his article “How the confrontation between the U.S. and Iran affects Georgia”. To read the full article, visit the link below.

Title of the News-Front article: American policy is limiting Georgia’s interests towards Russia as well as Iran

News-Front Georgia shared a post:

As always, Russia is blamed for everything, however why was Russia accused of last year’s cyber-attacks today and now? It is not surprising that Russia and its military machinery was declared “guilty” because this is in the interest of the “international partners” and they established this “truth”. They’ve found the right moment – part of Davit Gareji should be officially given to Azerbaijan. Naturally, U.S. and British ambassadors also operatively responded to publication of investigation results. It is likely that those who wanted to deflect attention from Davit Gareji are sitting in these very embassies. See the link below.

Title of the News-Front article: Russian “cyberattacks” – a way to distract attention from David Gareji

Notably, such activity of News-Front did not only aim to artificially disseminate content of the agency but also, it seems to have been a part of a larger Russian information operation, as confirmed by the fact that agency’s Facebook page and inauthentic accounts associated with it disseminated in Facebook groups not only materials of the News-Front website, but also, materials of another pro-Russian publication www.Geoworld.ge. ISFED believes that it is highly likely that the aim of News-Front was not only to increase the audience of its website but also to disseminate pro-Russian narratives.

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News-Front Georgia > Kakha Kaladze Tbilisi Mayor

Text accompanying geworld.ge link: Vazha Otarashvili: the West does not need an educated generation from us but rather, woodcutters, prostitutes, waters and...

News-Front Georgia > Bidzina Ivanishvili’s friends

Text accompanying geworld.ge link: Several months prior to the election, the Georgian society knows what it doesn’t want. It is the “opposition” united in Natelashvili’s caravanserai, which isn’t going to receive any votes.

Text accompanying geworld.ge link: “I cannot forgive anyone for talking like that on the Georgian soil, even if they had not one but ten of their children killed, unfairly” – response to Machalikashvili’s father.

News-Front’s use of inauthentic accounts to post targeted messages in Facebook groups with thousands of members was an effective mechanism for them because administrators of targeted Facebook groups were not using the function of content moderation. In addition, the audience that received information from a seemingly real user, tailored to his interest or political taste, was less likely to think about origin of the information or question its trustworthiness.

Monitoring of the inauthentic network of the Russian information agency News-Front shows that their activity exhibited signs of intentional interference with domestic political processes in Georgia and attempts to encourage political polarization through the promotion of political divisions. Removal of News-Front and its associated accounts from Facebook is an important step as it curbs Kremlin agency’s ability to trick and disorganize society through false and manipulative behavior. However, the agency which lists its head office address in Russian occupied territory of Crimea continues operating in Georgia and, based on the findings of this investigation, it still represents a security challenge for Georgia.

The integrity of the 2020 parliamentary elections relies not only on maintaining political stability, but also on protecting the country against the threats of electoral interference by the Russian Federation. Following investigations conducted by the governments of Georgia, the United States and the United Kingdom, it was confirmed on February 20 that the Russian Federation was behind the large-scale cyber-attack that took place in Georgia on October 28, 2019, one year ahead of parliamentary elections. In addition, a report published by the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service on February 17 indicates the threat of Russia’s interference in the Georgian parliamentary elections. These circumstances clearly suggest that Russia will most likely resort to active operations in the information space ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections, including by using social media, which represents a serious challenge to the State in the pre-election period.

The report is prepared based on openly available sources on Facebook. Assessment of the personal accounts (profiles) stems from their public activity only. CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool owned by Facebook, was used as a monitoring tool, while public posts of the Facebook pages connected to News-Front Georgia were collected through Fact-a-lyzer, a monitoring tool developed by NDI with ISFED’s input.

ISFED’s social media monitoring program is carried out with the generous support from the American people through financial assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), East-West Management Institute’s (EWMI) ACCESS Project, and through funding from Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF). Content of this report is the sole responsibility of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy and may not necessarily reflect the views of the donor organizations.

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[1] Doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili was arrested by the so-called State Security Committee of Tskhinvali illegally, for illegal crossing of the so-called border and sentenced to 1 year and 9 months of deprivation of freedom. Vazha Gaprindashvili was released from the illegal imprisonment on December 28. https://civil.ge/ka/archives/332211